What four slave societies evolved prior to the Revolutionary War? source material is "Many Thousand Gone," by Ira Berlin.

The four slave societies
that Ira Berlin discusses are the society in the Northern colonies (New England and the
mid-Atlantic region), the Chesapeake, the Low Country (South Carolina and Florida), and the
lower Mississippi Valley. Berlin analyzes the way in which slavery was affected by different
climates and economies in different parts of the New World. For example, in New York City, many
enslaved people served as workers. Berlin describes the different "nations of African
descent" (108) that developed in the New World. The nations were different depending on the
numbers of slaves present, the climate, what was grown, and the character of the white
population in the area.

Berlin emphasizes that although areas in the North
were not centered on slave-owning (they were, he writes, "societies with slaves not slave
societies, p. 47), such as they were in the South, the area was still a place in which slaves
were treated harshly. Berlin's point is that slaves were not treated any better in areas in
which they were used as urban workers than in areas in which they were primarily agricultural
workers. Instead, northern slaves suffered as much as southern slaves did, and northern slaves
suffered from high mortality rates (p. 186). It was only once slaves were freed that they
started to do better; while still enslaved, people suffered. He also discusses slaves under
British, French, and Spanish control, all of whom were subjected to racism and brutality.